You can configure the Rank transformation to return the top or bottom values of a string port. The Data Integration Service sorts strings based on the sort order selected for the deployed mapping.
When you configure the application that contains the mapping, you select the sort order that the Data Integration Service uses to run the mapping. You can select binary or a specific language such as French or German. If you select binary, the Data Integration Service calculates the binary value of each string and sorts the strings using the binary values. If you select a language, the Data Integration Service sorts the strings alphabetically using the sort order for the language.